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I have to admit I was pretty irritated by the cover story of the New York Times Magazine this past week. Not that they featured a young woman blogger, of course, but that the article by former Gawker blogger Emily Gould – which was more of a juicy diary of sex, lies and blogging – that gave a pretty inaccurate portrait of what it means to be a female writer.
And why is that when women writers get attention in the mainstream media, they can only be portrayed in this sexualized and pleasing way in tousled bed sheets? (The NY Time Magazine cover picture to the right is only one of a few.)
Rebecca Traister had a great analysis of the piece yesterday, where she addresses the way that the media – largely controlled by men – not only allows a limited number of women writers to get their 15 minutes of fame, but the only time we’re given it is when we’re willing to expose something:

“When we are fed — and gobble up — stories by or about single urban working women, those exotic and potentially threatening creatures presented to us are often doing things like confessing their self-doubt, discussing their sex lives, lying on rumpled sheets looking pretty.”

But being personal is not what necessarily should be condemned:

We have to remember: There is nothing wrong with women writing about themselves, their youth, their indiscretions, their habits and values and personal development. Men have been writing about this stuff for thousands of years; they call it the canon.
And like their male contemporaries, a lot of this writing disappoints. When it does, there is nothing wrong with criticizing it. The thing that is wrong — really wrong — is when we forget that these kinds of stories are not the only ones that women have to tell. (Emphasis mine.)

The comments section of the article had to be shut down because of the severity of abusive responses towards Gould for writing about her experiences. Would she have received this kind of backlash if she was a man? Likely not.
What do others think?

#MeToo detractor Andrew Sullivan is back in New York Magazine this week with his latest gripe about those pesky feminist harpies. This time, he argues, “left-feminists” have gone too far in refusing to accept what Sullivan says is the scientific, biological truth that men are naturally sexually aggressive.

Frankly, Andrew Sullivan hasn’t been relevant since 2011, when he was best known for peddling race science, so you may want to take his “it’s just science!” defenses of the structural inequality with a grain of salt. But he’s not the only #MeToo critic to advance the idea that ...

This week, the Senate succeeded on partisan lines in passing a bill known widely as the “Republican Tax Scam,” a widely and unanimously decried piece of legislation that exploits the working class to expand the wealth of the top 5%, strips millions of people’s healthcare, and tanks the country’s economy while it’s at it, all at the service of the party’s wealthy donors.

The bill cleared the Senate floor after it was given the go-ahead by so-called “moderate” Republicans, one of whom was Senator Susan Collins, considered a ‘hero‘ by centrist Democrats after her vote to block Republican Obamacare repeal legislation. Senator Collins apparently ‘blasted’ coverage of her approach to the bill on ...

For the past few months, I’ve seen several articles — almost exclusively writtenbywhite women — arguing that we shouldn’t enforce Title IX protections for survivors of sexual assault because the authors believe Black men are more likely to be accused. The narrative has been picked up by numerous media outlets and used by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to strip protections for survivors.

The idea that survivors’ rights are a threat to Black men leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Let me be clear: that’s not because I’m not worried about race discrimination in school discipline. We have no data to support the argument that Black men are more likely to be accused of or ...

For the past few months, I’ve seen several articles — almost exclusively writtenbywhite women — arguing that we shouldn’t enforce Title IX protections for survivors of sexual assault because the authors ...

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